Niall Blaney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber for this debate on the A5, the N2 and the TEN-T in the North. It was fantastic that there was an announcement yesterday of €600 million for the A5. It is brilliant news. I would like to know where everything moves from here. The A5 has been the blockage for so long. I remember being told on air by some of the Acting Chair's colleagues in Donegal not to worry about the A5 because Conor Murphy, the Minister in Northern Ireland, was dealing with it and it would be sorted. This did not happen.

We hope the funding is back on the table. Stormont is back up and running and we hope the A5 will now start to move with progression. Projects were held up on the Southern end and Northern end. I am particularly dealing with the Northern end and the TEN-T project. It is important that they all move forward. I know the Department has a case study on the TEN-T. This must come to Cabinet and it needs approval. Perhaps the Minister of State will brief us on the projects, including the TEN-T in the North, the A5 in between and N2 Clontibret piece at the bottom. Will the Minister of State give us an update on this?

I remember meeting the then Taoiseach more than 20 years ago to lobby for the N2 and A5. That was back at the time the national development plan was announced. Many other projects were also announced, such as the M1, the N4, the N6 from Galway to Dublin, the Limerick to Cork route and the famous Waterford route.Back at that time the N2-A5 at the midway point had the exact same traffic volumes in 2000 as the Galway to Dublin route had. It had greater traffic volumes than the Limerick route or the Waterford route. Now, almost 25 years on, we are still awaiting our project. Because of that, we have fallen back as a community. We are not getting the same opportunities. Without those business opportunities, it is not possible to create the same jobs, leading to a brain drain that is a strain on our economy. It is really important that we drive these projects on as speedily as we can.